12 January, Chicago: Creation of the Majestic Motion Picture Co. by Harry Aitken and John Freuler. 16 January, New York: His Trust, part one of a film by D. W. Griffith, is now screening. Part two, His Trust Fulfilled, should come out in three days time. Griffith wanted them shown simultaneously, but Henry Marvin, the manager of the Biograph, was against the idea. 16 January, St. Petersburg: Alexander Khanjonkov has released The Kreutzer Scandal, adapted from the novella by Leo Tolstoy. Ivan Mosjoukine takes the leading role. 31 January, Los Angeles: Vitagraph has opened a film studio in California. 1 February, Istanbul: Léon Gaumont has opened a new branch of Comtoir-Ciné-Location, a rental firm for films produced and distributed by Gaumont. He already owns branches in Paris, Brussels and Cairo. 2 February, St. Petersburg: The Demon, an adaptation by the Italian filmmaker Giovanni Vitrotti of Lermontov's work, produced by the Gloria Co., is currently screening. Filming took place in the Tiflis studios in Georgia. 4 February, Paris: Gaumont has released Léonce Perret's Dans la vie (In the Midst of Life). The film, a "poignantly emotional story," stars Perret himself and Yvette Andreyor. 17 February, Paris: Léon Gaumont has once more demonstrated the Chronophone to the Photographic Society. A film was projected during the session, and M. d'Arsonval explained yow the invention worked, while a rooster let out a loud cock-a-doodle-do through the powerful Elgéphone. 25 February, New York: The Vitagraph Co. has just released A Tale of Two Cities, adapted from the Charles Dickens novel and produced by J. Stuart Blackton and William Humphrey. The first three-reeler made by Vitagraph, each reel will be shown separately. 4 March, Paris: Pathé, who is the French distributor for the Russian Drancov Company's documentary about Tolstoy, has just released Anna Karenina. The film was produced by Pathé's Russian branch and used Russian actors who worked under the direction of Maurice André Maître. 11 March, France: The Anti-Pornography League in Lille, La Maison de la Bonne Press, and Cardinal Coullié, the archbishop of Lyon, are leading a vigorous campaign against the cinema. In Paris, the league against licentiousness has asked audiences to whistle their disapproval during immoral films and to deface posters of a questionable nature. 16 March, Paris: Cinema Rochechouart is presently screening Giuseppe De Liguoro's adaptation of Dante's Inferno. 16 March, Paris: Gaumont's new talking film, La Vie reconstituée, is currently showing at the Olympia. 18 March, Paris: The Geographical Society has presented the Alfred Molteni prize to Martel, the cameraman from Lion Films, for his shots of Abyssinia. 1 April, Paris: The Jougla Company, manufacturers of film negative, has merged with the Lumiére establishment. 7 April, Paris: Itala Films is now distributing its major production, The Fall of Troy, by Giovanni Pastrone. 12 April, New York: Since 1905 readers of the New York Herald have delighted in the magical world of the Little Nemo in Slumberland strip drawn by Winsor McCay. Now the strip has come to life in an animated film that is being shown tonight at the Colonial Theater as part of McCay's celebrated vaudeville act in which he sketchs "The Seven Ages of Man." McCay has been experimenting with animation for almost as long as he has been drawing Little Nemo, the youthful Everyman who travels throughout space and time. The origins of his animated film, entitled Little Nemo and the Princess, lie in a wager the prolific McCay made with fellow cartoonists that he could not produce enough drawings to sustain a five-minute animated cartoon. The 4,000 hand-tinted drawings for the cartoon were made on transparent rice paper, mounted on thin cardboard and then photographed on to one reel at the Vitagraph studios in Brooklyn. The cartoon is preceded by a live action sequence, directed by J. Stuart Blackton, in which McCay appears with Vitagraph's star comedian, John Bunny, in a fanciful re-creation of the famous wager in a saloon under the Brooklyn Bridge. In an equally humorous vein, it also provides a brief glimpse of the painstaking methods the cartoonist used to make the film. As a result, McCay's characters, Little Nemo, Flip, Impy and Dr. Pill, go through their paces with an almost uncanny smoothness. Little Nemo himself is formed by lines that resemble steel filings drawn on to a magnet. He sketches the Princess and presents her with a rose that grows just in time to be plucked. They are then carried off to Slumberland in a splendid dragon chariot. The film ends with another live action sequence that shows the happy McCay collecting his bet. 1 May, Prague: The producer Antonin Pech has founded the Kinofa Company. 6 May, Paris: Italian films are flooding French screens. La Jérusalem deliverée by Enrico Guazzoni, adapted from Le Tasse, is now screening at La Cinés. 20 May, Paris: Pathé has released a "social drama," Les Victimes de l'alcool (The Victims of Alcohol) by Ferdinand Zecca (adapted from Zola's novel L'Assommoir) to compete with Gaumont's "Life as it really is" series. 5 June, Chicago: "Flying A" is flying high. Although the formation of this new company was first announced in The Moving Picture World just eight months ago, it has been quick to make its mark. Formally known as the American Film Manufacturing Company of Chicago, it has assembled a talented production team and roster of players, some of them poached from Essanay. Three different stock companies have been operating simultaneously, filming comedies, dramas and Westerns, with two one-reelers a week released under the Flying A banner sinnce November. Most interesting of those three is the company that headed west to film, first in Tucson, Arizona and then in Southern California. Scenario writer Allan Dwan has become the director since the departure of Frank Beal, while the leading players of note are J. Warren Kerrigan and Pauline Bush. Some idea of the range of recent releases can be gleaned from the titles alone, included among which are Rattlesnakes and Gunpowder, The Sheepman's Daughter and -- on a split reel with The Elopements on Double L Ranch -- The Sagebrush Phrenologist. 14 June, New York: Enoch Arden, a two-reel film from D. W. Griffith, is now screening. The Biograph Company has decided to show both parts at the same session. 17 June, Paris: Ciné-Journal has disclosed that old films are sold off to boot makers. After a treatment with celluloid they are used to glaze high quality boots. 30 June, China: The Imperial Government here has brought in regulations concerning the cinema industry: authorization must be obtained to open a theater; men and women must be seated apart; immoral films are forbidden; and, the last session has to finish before midnight. 14 July, Paris: Film d'Art has released Camille Desmoulins, a color-tinted film produced by Henri Pouctal. 1 August, Paris: Gaumont has launched its 35mm, metal, X series "projection box," equipped with all the latest technology and selling for 900 francs. Pathé is selling a similar machine, the No. 4 projection box, for 876 francs. 5 August, Paris: Pathé continues to expand into new areas. It is now shooting Nick Winter contre Nick Winter, a comic film directed by Gerard Bourgeois and featuring Georges Winter, a leading actor from the Châtelet Theatre. The inspiration for Nick Winter is the Nick Carter series directed by Victorin Jasset for Eclair that has been running for the last three years and stars Pierre Bressol as the debonair turn-of-the-century sleuth. The Nick Winter adventures for Pathé are comedy-thrillers with a detective background. Pathé's attempts to exploit the success of Jasset's series is a tribute to the successful formula developed by the former sculptor and stage designer who has been making films since 1905. 19 August, Paris: Gaumont has released La Fin de Paganini (The End of Paganini), the script for which was purchased by Louis Feuillade from Abel Gance. 28 August, Copenhagen: The new Danish company Kinografen has released De Fire Djaevle (The Four Devils) by Alfred Lind and Robert Dineson, two renegades from Nordisk. 30 August, New York: The French production company Eclair has set up its first American branch here. 30 September, Paris: Gaumont is growing increasingly more powerful. In addition to studios and laboratories, it has now moved aggressively into film exhibition. Today Léon Gaumont opens the doors of the biggest movie theater in the world. The former Hippodrome, on the place Clichy, has become the Gaumont Palace. The distinguished architect Auguste Bahrmann has completely transformed the theater, which can seat up to 3,400. Films will be accompanied by a 30-piece orchestra and choir under the musical direction of Paul Fosse. There are two projectors, which will allow reels to be changed without any interruption of the program. Air conditioning maintains a constant temperature in the theater. The heating system, which must work overtime in such a vast space, gobbles up a daily diet of five tons of coal. During the intermission the theater's patrons can meet and eat in the Gaumont Palace's buffer, which has been placed at the center of a spacious, circular walkway. Lighting is provided by 10,000 incandescent lights and 50 arc lamps. This Saturday's program runs to over 2,000 feet of film, including tinted and sound films, the latter utilizing Gaumont's Chronophone device, newsreels and comic and dramatic scenes -- in short the cream of Gaumont's output. Screened in three sessions, the Gaumont's program compares favorably with those offered by the city's other leading music halls. 1 October, Los Angeles: Thomas Harper Ince, one of the most enterprising and dynamic of the new beed of independent producers, has been stirring things up in California. He was initially hired by Bison Pictures (the New York Motion Picture Co.) to direct Westerns at their Edenvale studios, and arrived in California just a few months ago with his actress wife Alice Kershaw. However, it was not long before Ince was making some basic changes. Dissatisfied with the simply plotted and cheaply made Westerns that are currently being turned out, he made a deal with the Miller Brothers whose 101 Ranch Wild West Show had just arrived in California for the winter. At a stroke he acquired the services of a large number of authentic cowboys and cowgirls, Indians and their squaws, trained horses, oxen and buffalo, along with wagons, stagecoaches, prairie schooners, and other invaluable accessories. He also bought almost 20,000 acres of land on which to film his Westerns so as to give them a more authentic and convincing appearance. Already, Ince's first two-reeler, entitled War on the Plains, has set a new standard for all Western productions of the future.      Thomas Ince has come a long way in just a few short years. An actor on the stage from an early age like his younger brother Ralph, he first became attracted to films when he realized that he would never make a real success of the theater. Having played a few small movie roles around 1908-1909, Ince was signed up by Biograph in 1910 and appeared in a number of films. But he soon grew discontented with merely being an actor. With the help of his actress wife, he was hired by Carl Laemmle's IMP Co. to write and direct films featuring the company's newest star, Mary Pickford. He quickly turned out a number of one-reelers, including Her Darkest Hour and In Old Madrid, before he received his most recent (and best) offer from Bison. It is quite clear that much can be expected of this man who has not yet reached his thirtieth birthday. 2 October, Hollywood: David Horsley, the head of a New Jersey production company, ha begun building a film studio here. The Nestor will be situated at the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street. 27 October, Rome: Release of Luggi Maggi's Nozze d'oro (The Golden Wedding), a gold medal winner at the World's Fair. 10 November, Paris: First release of the 810-metre long Notre Dame de Paris, a SCAGL-Pathé production, an adaptation from Victor Hugo's novel by Albert Capellani, with Stacia de Napierkowska and Henry Krauss playing the lead roles. 10 November, Paris: The General Cinematic Agency, which distributes Film d'Art productions, has just released Madame San-Géne, an excellent 940-metre comedy in color, directed by André Calmettes and inspired by the famous play by Victorien Sardou and Emile Moreau. The celebrated actress Gabrielle Réjane plays the title role with Edmond Duquesne as Napoleon, and Georges Dorival as Lefebre. Since 30 December 1909, Film d'Art has been freed from Pathé's surveillance. Paul Gavault succeeded Paul Lafitte, but the account books continued to look extremely unhealthy. The 1908-1909 financial trading ended in failure with a deficit of 283,000 francs. Le Bargy was also dismissed, to be replaced by André Calmettes and the former actor Henri Pouctal, who arrived at the Neuilly studios in 1910. And in spite of the release of Madame San-Géne, the year ended badly for Film d'Art, and Paul Gavault was forced to withdraw. Charles Delac now presides over the new administrative council. 11 November, Paris: Georges Méliès' new film The Hallucinations of Baron Münchhausen is now available to customers. This 235-metre work of special effects is distributed by Charles Pathé. The greedy producer, who invested in the film which was shot at the Montreuil studio, is not really happy to be exploiting it. In truth, Pathé has risked little, because poor Méliès has given Pathé his property and his studio at Montreuil as a guarantee. If his films fail to make a profit, Pathé will be able to sell the whole lot. Alas, Pathé has reason to be cautious, because Méliès' work is no longer fashionable. Between 1896 and 1909, he directed nearly 500 films, but in 1910 his marvelous productions totally ceased. As a result, the magician has returned to his former love, the old Robert Houdin Theatre. At the beginning of the year, Méliès received a visit from Claude Grivolas, one of the various financiers backing Pathé. Grivolas has a great passion for magic and appreciates Méliès' works, so it was perhaps he who convinced Pathé to put his trust in Star Films. Méliès accepted Grivolas' offer, the latter requesting him to direct a film at Pathé's expense.      The workshop at Montreuil has now restarted its familiar activites. The Hallucinations of Baron Münchhausen, which began shooting in May, launches the legendary German baron into a fantastic world, by turns comic and frightening. The source of all the phantasmagoria is a large mirror. Méliès was responsible for the excellent special effects and the sets. The final result, colored by stencil, was shown to Ferdinand Zecca and Charles Pathé, but only dead silence followed the screening. Without a doubt, Zecca sees a rival in Méliès. After burying his head in his hands, Zecca eventually said that he thought the film was too short and that Méliès could improve it. Pathé kept quiet but was visibly in agreement with his artistic director. Criticized and humiliated, Méliès was furious. The Hallucinations of Baron Münchhausen will be rented out to theaters, but if the film fails to meet with success, it seems clear that Méliès' future as a director and proprietor will be at stake. 23 December, Paris: A new Gaumont film directed by the immensely prolific Louis Feuillade, The Destiny of Mothers, is attracting attention. It tells the story of a widow, played by Renée Carl, who initially gives up all thoughts of remarrying for the sake of her daughter, the beautiful Suzanne Grandais. She relents, however, and her new husband, played by the somber René Navarre, destroys all her hopes of happiness. The Destiny of Mothers is the tenth film in a series that introduces moviegoers to scenes from "Life as It Really Is." Launched in April with The Vipers, it is a satire against vicious gossip. Feuillade has gone on record saying that the aim of his new series is to bring to the screen the kind of realism that has long been associated with literature, theater and painting. However, Feuillade's first tentative steps fall somewhat short of the work of Zola or Maupassant; the prudish Gaumont insists on maintaining a high moral tone in his films. Nevertheless, the press has affirmed that one of the films in the series, The White Mouse, is clearly leaning toward the pornographic: "One sees here two devout old girls flirting with two old paillards in a house de luxe to which morals object, but which the police tolerate." Louis Feuillade is in his elelment with this series. Films Esthétiques was launched in May 1910 to compete with the quality output of both Film d'Art and SCAGL, while at the same time avoiding long and boring biblical or historical scenes. 27 December, Paris: Abel Gance has signed a contract with the Alter Ego company for the making of four films in a small studio in Neuilly. 29 December, Paris: Pathé has released its Little Moritz chasse les grands fauves (Little Moritz Hunts Big Game), part of the "Comica" series directed by Roméo Bosetti, with the music hall actor Maurice Schwartz. 31 December, Berlin: The production company Deutsche Bioskop has built a glass studio in Babelsberg on a block measuring 40,000 square metres.